Draft-regulating mechanism.



T. R. STOLTENBERG. DRAFTKRE'GULATINGMECHANISM. l APPLlcATIQN rlLen'suninLnsla.

Patented' Jan. 21g-1919.

- UNITED STATES PATENT oEErcE.

THOMAS R. STOLTENBERG, OF MOLINE, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR' TO MOLINE HEAT, OF

MOLINE, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

DRAFT-REGULATING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

l Patented Jan. e1, 191e.

To all lwhom zt may concern: A

Be it known that I, THOMAS R. STOLTEN- BERG, a, citizen of the United States, and a resident of Moline, in the county of Rock Island and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Draft-Regulating Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to draft regulating mechanism for regulating and controlling 4the ydraft intensity through heating devices i vention is to provide a free wide opening for the air regardless of the velocity, the arrangement of the opening being such that the inflow of air will be at an angle that is nearly in line with the travel of the air through the pipe or chimney, crowding of the air being thus prevented and the draft regulation made more eiiicient and the control more sensitive than in prior devices in which there is more or less crowding of the air at one side of the inlet aperture.

Another object of the invention is to pro'- vide improved mechanism for balancing the regulating door and for resisting and adjusting its response to the pressure of inflowing air.

The various'features of my invention are clearly illustrated on the accompanying drawing in which- Figure 1 is a front elevational view showing my improved apparatus applied to a chimney, and

Fig. 2 is a side elevational viewwith the chimney and rear part of the regulating devicephousing in vertical cross-section. l

The housing 5 of the regulator attachment is in the form of a conicaLhood agplied to the opening 6 in the chimney In the lower wall 8 of the hood is the rectangular opening 9 whose angle with Vreference to the chimney opening 6 is such that the air' can freely flow into and up through lthe chimney without crowding against the upper part of the housing. In prior structures the air is forced to enter the chimney flue .at right angles thereto and the air will crowd toward the top wall of the chimney opening in proportion to the velocity but in my arrangement where the air enters in a direction nearly in line with the travel of air up the flue'the flow is uniform regardless of the velocity, and there is no crowding.

Extending transversely through the housing near i-ts apex and journaled in the side walls thereof 1s a shaft 10 on which the door 11 is secured at its upper end to swing within the housing from its lower closed position against the lower wall and to open position against the upper wall. On this shaft is mounted a. pulley member 12 from which extends a stem 13 threaded at its outer end to adjustably receive a counterweight 14, the adjustment being such that the weight will balance the4 weight of the door 11. The pulley member can be de- `tachably secured in any desired manner to the shaft, and the stem 13 may thread into the pulley andserve as a set screw for securing it to the shaft. The pulley member shown is -semi-circular and has grooves 15 of different radii. A chai'n 16 which may be anchored at one end to the stem 13 engages in one of these grooves and at its lower end supports a weight 17, this weight Atending to rotate the pulley and shaft and to swing the door downwardly and hold it closed against the pressure of air on its outer side. As the pressure component, that is, the total pressure of the air against the door, varies as the door assumes different angles in swinging upwardly, the weight tending` to close the door should decrease proportionately in order that resistance to the air fiowy and regulation of the draft intensity through the furnace should be uniform and constant. The ulley member is therefore mounted eccentrlcally on the door shaft in order that when the door is swung upwardly and the pulley turned, the leverage distance between the chain 16 and the vertical plane of the shaft will decrease. Thedegree of eccentricity is such that a vconstant resistance will be offered against upward swing of the door throughout its range of movement. The door will thusv respond nicely and efficiently to draft pressure and the furnace draft will be 4.corregreater or less resistance but such resistance can be readily adjusted for by applying the chain 16 in that groove 15 which gives the desired leverage distance.

f'lhe ycam member 12 can be attached to either end f the shaft 10. conditions it may be desirable to reverse the cam member and for this purpose a hole 18 is provided at the other side of the center of the cam member for receiving the shaft 10. This Will enable application of the door controlling mechanism in such manner as will make 1tl more accessible, for example,l where Ythe chimney adjoins a wall or where the regulator is placed in a corner.

In order that the door may be operated independently of its automatic controlling mechanism, a chain 19 is secured to the cam member and may extendto any location from which it is desired to manually or mechanically controlthe regulator.

I thus provide a very efficient draft con-y trolling mechanlsm for heating devices through which the draft checking air circuit can flow unhindered in the general direction of the chimney Hue and without crowding, the door being. balanced by a counter-weight and its upward movement resisted by a weight acting thereon with` a leverage proportionate to the variationl of lat an obtuse angle with the chimney side whereby air may flow therethrough nearly 1n line with the upward passage of air through the chimney, a door pivoted to said housing adjacent the upper end of said housing opening to swing to and away from said opening, and adjustable weight mechanism for resisting the upward swing of said door in proportion to the pressure of linflowing airl against the underside of the door.

2. The combination with a chimney having a side opening, of .draft regulator mechanism comprising a housing lsecured to the chimney around its side opening and having an air entrance opening in its lower side in line with said side opening, a door hinged adjacent the outer end of said air entrance,

opening to swing in the path of air entering through said air entrance opening, a counter-weight for said door, landadd'itional weight controlled mechanism operating au'- Under some tomatically to resistl upward swing of the door in proportion to the varying upward pressure exerted by the air as the door assumes various angles with reference to the air entrance opening.

3. The combination with a chimney having an opening, of draft regulator mechanism comprising a housing secured to the chimney around said opening and having van air entrance opening, a shaft journaled adjacent the upper end of said air entrance opening, a door secured at its upper edge to said shaft to open and close said air entrance opening and to swing in thepath of air flowing through said air entrance opening into the chimney, a counter-weight for balancing the weight of said door, a pulley secured to said shaft, a cord secured at its upper end to said pulley and passing around the pulley periphery, a weight secured to the lower end of said cord, said weight acting on saidpulley and shaft to resist opening movement of said door, said pulley being eccentrically mounted on said shaft to cause the radius of engagement of said cord with said pulley to decrease as the door is swung open by air pressure thereagainst and the vresistance to said swing correspondingly decreased.

4. 'The combination with a chimney having a side opening, of draft regulator mechanism comprising a housing secured to said chimney over said side opening, a damper pivoted at its outer end in said housing and extending toward said chimney opening to swing vertically therein, the upper and lower walls of said housing formingv abut- Vments for said damper, said lower wall having an air inlet passageway which is closed when the damperis down, a counter weight for balancing said damper, a weight, and adjustable leverage connection between said weight and damper for causing u ward lmovement of said damper to be resiste -in proportion to the pressure component against the under side'of said damper as the damper swings vertically.

5. The combination with a chimney having a side opening, of a housing secured to said chimney over said opening, a. damper 'pivoted at its outer end on said housing and extending toward said chimney opening to swing vertically therein, the lower wall of saidhousing having an air inlet opening,

said inlet opening being closed by the dami per in its lower position, a weight having leverage connection with said damper intending to swing it downwardly toward closed position, and means foradjusting said leverage connection whereby to alitomatically decrease the downward effort on said damper as the damper swings upwardly and the pressure of the air against its under side decreases.

6. The combination with a chimney having a side opening, of a draft regulator comprising a. housing secured to said chimney over saidopening, said housing having an air inlet opening, a damper pivoted in said housing for controlling said air inlet opening, a pulley eccentrically mounted with reference to the damper pivot and secured tothe damper, -a Weight, a chain secured to said Weight and to said pulley, and a plura1 ity of grooves on said pulley of different diameters for receiving said chain whereby 10 to adjust leverage connection between seid Weight and damper to thereby vary the resistance to the opening of said damper.

In Witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 11th day'of April, A. D., 1918. 15

T. R. STOLTENBERG. 

